This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The primary goals of my research program are to carry out comparative investigations of the formation and function of protein-RNA complexes involved in the translation process across all three domains of life. The computer time requested in this LRAC renewal will be applied specifically to characterize the interactions of tRNA and ATP with the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, the folding of the ribosomal proteins (r-proteins), and the signaling interactions of natural antibiotics with ribosomal signatures. In addition to the projects addressing protein synthesis in modern translation, we will study the RNA world scenario of non-ribosomal peptide formation catalyzed by clay surfaces. Our approach involves integrating evolutionary insights into both full atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and coarse-grained models.